A place for reflection and introspection, communication and thoughtful conversation.

Thursday, 15 May 2014

MY HUMAN FAMILY

“Tolerance is
giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” - RobertGreen Ingersoll
I was amazed
today while talking to an acquaintance to hear him spout forth some extremely
vituperative racist comments while discussing the Middle East. This fellow,
whom I know through another mutual acquaintance, had up until yesterday seemed
rather pleasant and reasonable, but once this topic was broached, his prejudice
coloured his every word and it was immediately obvious that his opinion was
very strong, his facts minimal. My feelings were of immediate revulsion and the
conversation stopped rather abruptly as he got on his soapbox and started
lecturing me about the inherent inferiority of some people and the superiority
of others…
Experience has
shown me that trying to reason with such people is an absolute waste of time as
logic, reason and facts are not heeded by them. Arnold H. Glasow states with
good reason: “The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion.” Not that any
discussion was even allowed by my interlocutor. He ploughed on regardless, not
interested in what my thoughts were, or even pausing to allow me to attempt to
answer some of his questions, which proved to be rhetorical. A Hebrew proverb states:
“Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest
violence”, and his vehemence attested to this. I was in the fortunate situation
of being able to make up my mind about him very quickly after this and he has
been shed from my circle of contacts. His kind generates a feeling of distaste
and his company will from now on be shunned.
Growing up in Australia in the
1970s as person of non-Anglosaxon background, I was able to experience the full
brunt of prejudice in my school years. Children are often the cruellest
adherents of such a mindset and of course the feeling of belonging to a group,
the concept of “us and them” is very strongly ingrained in their mind. These
were the days before multiculturalism, and being in a small country town where
I was the only “different” one in the class made me an easy target. I learnt
the hard way to defend myself, my heritage and my origins. I proved with deeds
not words that I was equal or superior to my peers and over time, I was slowly
accepted by them. However, it was not an easy journey and the most
deplorable thing on reflection was that
the attitude of my schoolmates was also shared by some of my teachers. Not
openly, of course, but on analysis it is apparent that their behaviour at the
time could only have been motivated by such discrimination.
Often, of course, a neutral attitude
and a failure to speak out, to raise one’s voice in opposition is as bad as
being openly prejudiced, or even worse. At least if I encounter a racist who
makes his views perfectly obvious, it is preferable to me than someone who says
nothing leaving me in doubt as to where his allegiances lie. Martin Niemöller
has to say the following about the matter: “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak
up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they went after the homosexuals and infirm, and
I did not stand up, because I was neither. Then they came for the trade
unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they
came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Finally they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up for me.”
All of us on this earth are
all connected to each other by our humanity. There are more things that join us
than things that separate us. Whether a Pacific Islander on some remote atoll
or a banker in New York City, a housewife in India or a career woman in
Germany, a Chinese government official or an African village dweller, a Saudi
Arabian sheikh or a homeless Australian living in the streets of Sydney, all of
us share too many things to allow religion, nationality, political allegiance,
language, status or wealth to act as barriers. We all belong to the human
family and if any two people from any place on earth are left on a desert
island together they will discover innumerable commonalities as they try to
cope with the basics of survival and peaceful coexistence.
My family is the human family,
my home is the planet earth, my religion is respect and tolerance for all and
my politics are coloured by social equity, racial equality and regard for all
my fellow humans. My human family is one composed of billions of individuals,
all of us different and varied, but so very similar to one another at the same
time. We all have the same hopes and dreams and aspirations. Similar things
give us pleasure and pain. We laugh and cry and experience the same range of
other emotions as the other. William Allen White encapsulates all of this so
aptly: “If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as
full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as
his own… how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.”

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WELCOME

Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger

I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.

I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.